Music and Revolution in the Age of Disco

In 1976, poet, activist, critic, playwright Amiri Baraka released a 45” single on his own People’s War publishing imprint. The record, credited to the Advanced Workers with the Anti-Imperialist Singers, contained two short tracks: ‘You Was Dancin’ Need To Be Marchin’ So You Can Dance Some More Later On’ on the A-side, and ‘Better Red Let Other Be Dead’ on the B-side. Baraka recited slogans and poems: the group, with featured vocalist Jio Williams and saxophonist Winston Sims, included musicians from The Commodores, Parliament/Funkadelic & Kool and the Gang. These Maoist agit-prop songs were never destined to be hit singles. But it is precisely because of this, because of who Amiri Baraka was, and because of the reasons the record came into existence, that it forms a valuable entry-point for debates about the nature of culture: popular, mass, or revolutionary culture, Black culture, populist modernism, and that impulse Baraka called “the changing same”. In this paper, I will explore these singles to show how Baraka’s music and ideas might be useful for an idea of what popular music is, how it can be used, and how it has developed historically.

All welcome. No booking required.

Image credit: The Advanced Workers with the Anti-Imperialist Singers, ‘You Was Dancin’ Need To Be Marchin’ So You Can Dance Some More Later On

The Marxism in Culture seminar series was conceived in 2002 to provide a forum for those committed to the continuing relevance of Marxism for cultural analysis. Both "Marxism" and "culture" are conceived here in a broad sense.  We understand Marxism as an ongoing self-critical tradition, and correspondingly the critique of Marxism's own history and premises is part of the agenda. "Culture" is intended to comprehend not only the traditional fine arts, but also aspects of popular culture such as film, popular music, and fashion.  From this perspective, conventional distinctions between the avant-garde and the popular, the elite and the mass, the critical and the commercial are very much open for scrutiny.  All historical inquiry is theoretically grounded, self-consciously or not, and theoretical work in the Marxist tradition demands empirical verification.